MSU men’s basketball is in the home stretch. With three games to go in the regular season, here are my three things the Spartans need to do, or continue to do, to make a deep run in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.

Cohesion

This season has been defined by players missing time with injuries and not playing as well as they should be. Now, everybody is coming back. Adreian Payne and Keith Appling are back in the lineup and are continuing to get back into game shape, while Branden Dawson is slated to make his return against Illinois this weekend. They’re all coming back at the right time to get just enough experience before the Big Dance - they hope.

Kenny Kaminski

Kaminski has been the biggest surprise of the season.

The redshirt freshman forward has quickly become the best shooter on the team - leading to the creation of his own hashtag, #K3NNY, - and he needs to keep that up.

Statistically, he’s the second-best long ball shooter in the conference.

Sophomore guard Gary Harris went though a bit of a slump, but he looks to be coming out of it. Kaminski picked up the slack when Harris was off a bit.

Post depth

Payne is a force down low, and sophomore forward Matt Costello is quickly turning into someone Tom Izzo can count on under the rim.

If one of them or another big man gets in early foul trouble, freshman forward Gavin Schilling and junior Alex Gauna need to be there to pick up the pieces, because they certainly have the talent.

Zach Smith is a State News men’s basketball reporter. Reach him at zsmith@statenews.com.